HowNow

HowNow combines an LMS, learning experience platform, skills tools, and content for organizations that want employee development connected to work. Its broad mix of discovery and structured training is compelling for L&D teams, but custom pricing leaves buyers without a public starting point for budgeting.

Overview

Employees receive a personalized feed of learning opportunities, skills, and company knowledge relevant to their current and future roles. HowNow brings learning delivery together with discovery: Unified Search lets employees search connected sources from one place, while the AI Skill Graph maps resources, pathways, and internal experts to organizational skills.

Guru AI Coach can teach, coach, challenge, reinforce, and adapt using an organization's knowledge. Alongside the feed and search, that gives HowNow a clear workplace-learning focus rather than making it only a course administration system. The benefit depends on how well the organization's knowledge and skills can support the learning employees need.

Key features

Teams can create learning materials from text, images, video, GIFs, code snippets, quizzes, and SCORM files. SCORM and xAPI support, assessments, and certificates make the platform relevant to organizations that need to track formal learning as well as surface useful resources. It also supports session scheduling, attendance tracking, and virtual classroom integrations for online or in-person training.

HowNow Plus bundles curated learning from providers including Skillsoft and MindTools in one subscription. Listed integrations include Slack, Microsoft Teams, Workday, HiBob, Google Drive, Notion, Udemy, and LinkedIn Learning. That range can connect learning with tools employees already use, though buyers should match the integrations to their own systems before choosing the platform.

Employees can continue learning through Slack, the web, and the mobile app, including offline. The browser extension brings learning alongside workplace apps, making HowNow more accessible within day-to-day work than a destination-only portal.

Pricing

HowNow is paid software with custom pricing. The pricing page offers an investment and ROI calculator and invites prospective buyers to connect with an expert, but does not publish a plan price or plan limits. Organizations should expect to request a quote and establish scope directly before comparing total cost.

That approach may suit buyers evaluating a broader learning platform with their organization’s needs in view, but it is a drawback for teams that need to screen options against a known budget. There is no public free plan or trial term to use as a low-commitment route into the product.

Platforms

HowNow supports web, Android, iOS, macOS, and a browser extension. Mobile apps are listed for iPhone and iPad, and offline learning can help employees continue when they are away from a reliable connection. SSO and provisioning are supported with Azure, Google, Okta, OneLogin, and JumpCloud.

HowNow states that it holds ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials credentials and supports GDPR requirements. Its Trust Center describes RSA and elliptic-curve encryption for data in transit and full-disk AES-256 encryption for data at rest. These controls are relevant to IT and security teams assessing a learning platform for organizational use.

Who it's for

HowNow is aimed at modern L&D and HR teams that want learning tied to employee roles, skills, and business results. It can suit organizations that need content discovery and formal course management in one platform, including structured sessions, assessments, and certificates. Teams chiefly seeking a low-cost, self-serve tool should look elsewhere if they need clear public pricing or a free entry tier.

Pros and cons

• Pros: Personalized learning feeds, unified search, and skills mapping bring resources and company expertise closer to employees’ roles.
• Pros: Content authoring, SCORM and xAPI support, assessments, certificates, and session administration cover both self-directed and scheduled learning.
• Pros: Slack, web, mobile, and browser-extension access, including offline learning, gives employees several ways to reach training.
• Cons: Custom pricing requires a sales conversation, making early budget comparisons harder.
• Cons: No public free plan or trial term provides a clearly stated low-commitment way to evaluate it.

Alternatives

Browse the Learning Experience Platforms or Learning Management Systems lists if you want to compare products by category. LearningStone is a more suitable starting point for a small collaborative training or coaching space: its free plan is forever, requires no credit card, and allows one space with up to five members. Leemons offers a free plan and supports self-hosted deployment, while its three paid plans are described as coming soon.

Rhapsode is worth considering when licensing needs are flexible: it offers custom arrangements by user, course, or revenue share, with unlimited users among the stated options. For other paid alternatives, compare Capabl, enablED, and Infosys Wingspan. Kriatix Lead Qualification Chatbot has a free trial but no free plan. Axonify uses quote-based Premium and Pro plans, with pricing depending on team size, locations, and features.

Verdict

Choose HowNow if your organization wants one workplace-learning platform for personalized discovery, skills-linked learning, content, and managed training. Its strongest case is the combination of learning resources with role-relevant skills and company knowledge. Look elsewhere if a published price, free tier, or trial is essential before engaging with a vendor.